The researchers, who studied the behaviors of fruit flies
given unlimited access to alcohol, say that:

Flies
will drink more alcohol per day over time (tolerance)

They
choose to drink enough alcohol in a session to become intoxicated

Once
accustomed to alcohol, fruit flies will continue to drink it even if the
alcohol is made to taste ‘unpalatable’

Alcohol
accustomed fruit flies that are forced to stop consuming alcohol will
quickly return to heavy consumption when again allowed access to unlimited
quantities of alcohol

Lead researcher, Ulrike Heberlein, explained that this study
proves that fruit flies choose to drink alcohol because they like its rewarding
properties and that this is quite significant, saying, "this work opens
the door for us to study much more complex alcohol-related behaviors, such as
'use despite adverse consequences' and relapse."

The full results of the study have been published in the
December 10th online edition of Current Biology.

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